Bookshop swaps Kindles for real books

Are you entirely unsatisfied with the digital publishing revolution? Do you curse your Kindle? One bookseller has the answer: it'll swap your unwanted e-book reader for a stack of paperbacks, hardbacks and magazines.

Portland, Oregon-based Microcosm Publishing said it will trade a Kindle - a gadget it slams as "soulless faux-literary technology" - for the device's value in new or used books and mags.

"Most of the store's books are priced in the $2-6 range so a $139-189 trade-in - note: going retail for the Kindle at Amazon's site - you might be carrying your books out in a fleet of wheelbarrows," enthuses the retailer.

So far, only one person has taken Microcosm up on the offer, the bookshop's boss, Joe Biel, told Reg Hardware today, but a "ton" of people have expressed in interest in making the change.

What will he do with them when they arrive? Says Joe: "We are going to build a museum with the Kindles to put with our pagers, laserdiscs and 1990s cell phones." ®